D&D 5E No Magic Shops!

Nebulous · Jul 3, 2019

I introduced a limited magic item shop in Port Nyanzaru when the PCs were stopping at civilization one last time before heading to Omu. They had a bunch of accumulated items and wealth they wanted to trade for useful stuff. I had to wing my way through the whole thing, and I definitely didn't let the players cherry pick what they wanted, and that IS what they wanted to do. But they were dealing with a wealthy Merchant Prince who had a market on magic, so it made sense within the context of the adventure that there would be stuff there to sell/buy/trade.

stav1369 · Jul 3, 2019

Nebulous said:
I introduced a limited magic item shop in Port Nyanzaru when the PCs were stopping at civilization one last time before heading to Omu. They had a bunch of accumulated items and wealth they wanted to trade for useful stuff. I had to wing my way through the whole thing, and I definitely didn't let the players cherry pick what they wanted, and that IS what they wanted to do. But they were dealing with a wealthy Merchant Prince who had a market on magic, so it made sense within the context of the adventure that there would be stuff there to sell/buy/trade.

Port Nyanzaru already has 2 magic shops as described in Tomb Of Anhilation. You don't need to create them only edit them at DM discretion for extra items stocked.

This whole thread should have been over on the first page.

There are 4 Official Magic item stores in 5E.

2 in Waterdeep (Dragon hiest) and 2 in Port Nyanzaru (Tomb of annihlation)

Azzy · Jul 4, 2019

Nothing like the smell of thread necromancy in the morning!

Maxperson · Jul 4, 2019

stav1369 said:
Except there are Magic shops in 5E.

TOMB OF ANNIHILATION in Port Nyanzaru there are not one but TWO magic stores.

Wakanga 'Otamu's store sells Common and uncommon Potions as well as spell scrolls of 1st and 2nd Level.

and

Ekene-Afa sells Magic weapons, amunition and Shields
She has Magic arrows 50 gp each, +1 Yklwa and +1 Dagger for 500gp and +1 Sheild for 450gp

Waterdeep Dragon Heist also has two magic stores (at least) in Troll skull alley.

Corellon's Crown sells magic potions:
Potion of animal Freindship, Potion of climbing, potion of greater, healing potion of healing and Potion of water breathing

and

Tiger's Eye spell scrolls up to the 5th Level

Considering the size of water deep and the fact that Troll skull alley is one tinny portion of the Metropolis it would be ridiculous to assume that these are the only magic stores in the town.

Now ofcourse as a DM you can make magic in your world very rare and take these official magic stores out of the world if you choose.

But this is a 93 page thread on no magic stores in 5e when there are at least 4 Official magic stores in two cities and I have not seen one person mention it.

None of those are magic shops as they are being used in this thread, though. Nor are they magic shops as 5e says don't exist unless you want them to. You can't go into them and buy any magic item you want. The inventories are highly limited.

S'mon · Jul 4, 2019

I have a fair bit of magic item buying imcs. The difference from 3e/4e is that PCs can't just buy or craft whatever they want, I use curated lists of ca 12-20 items, usually common and uncommon. So if an item would break game it's not in list. I also vary purchase prices quite a bit, typically uncommon items cost more than 500gp, I will do anything from 500 to 5000 for an uncommon.

Then I vary prices by x5 per tier not x10. So a rare would be 5000 to 25000, very rare 25000 to 125000 and legendary 125000 to 625000.

stav1369 · Jul 4, 2019

Of course they are magic shops.

they are official source materia in 2 official 5e campaign/modules.

They are shops that stock exclusivley (3 of the stores) a limited set of magic items. That is the very definition of magic shop.

"You can't go into them and buy any magic item you want."

Yes you can....there is no restriction on any of the 4 magic stores placed on adventureres in Tomb of Anhilation or Dragon Heist.
If adventurers have the money they simply can walk in and purchase any of the listed items at any time they please.

Just b/c they have a limited range of items does not mean they are not magic stores....no store in the world (real or fantasy) is a one stop shop where you can pick up any item in existance.

The point is that there are no less then 4 stores in 5e (that we know of) that you can walk into and buy magic items straight of the shelf with no restrictions beyond gold that are official Source Material.

The only thing that changes this is the DMs discretion in any given campaign but OFFICIALY 4 magic stores DO exist.

Hussar · Jul 4, 2019

Note, that Ghosts of Saltmarsh makes buying magic items a la carte entirely possible. Granted, you might have to wait for Magic Amazon to deliver your bespoke item, but, it is entirely possible to buy magic items in Saltmarsh.

Nebulous · Jul 4, 2019

Didn't 4e have the rule where players could get whatever magic item they asked for at a certain level, so long as it was level appropriate?

stav1369 · Jul 4, 2019

Maxperson said:
None of those are magic shops as they are being used in this thread, though. Nor are they magic shops as 5e says don't exist unless you want them to. You can't go into them and buy any magic item you want. The inventories are highly limited.

Of course they are magic shops.

they are official source materia in 2 official 5e campaign/modules.

They are shops that stock exclusivley (3 of the stores) a limited set of magic items. That is the very definition of magic shop.

"You can't go into them and buy any magic item you want."

Yes you can....there is no restriction on any of the 4 magic stores placed on adventureres in Tomb of Anhilation or Dragon Heist.
If adventurers have the money they simply can walk in and purchase any of the listed items at any time they please.

Just b/c they have a limited range of items does not mean they are not magic stores....no store in the world (real or fantasy) is a one stop shop where you can pick up any item in existance.

The point is that there are no less then 4 stores in 5e (that we know of) that you can walk into and buy magic items straight of the shelf with no restrictions beyond gold that are official Source Material.

The only thing that changes this is the DMs discretion in any given campaign but OFFICIALY 4 magic stores DO exist.

I understand there is no shop where you can buy "ANY" magic item but their is no general store where you can buy any item in existance either. Diffrent stores stock diffrent items.

FrogReaver · Jul 4, 2019

stav1369 said:
Of course they are magic shops.

they are official source materia in 2 official 5e campaign/modules.

They are shops that stock exclusivley (3 of the stores) a limited set of magic items. That is the very definition of magic shop.

"You can't go into them and buy any magic item you want."

Yes you can....there is no restriction on any of the 4 magic stores placed on adventureres in Tomb of Anhilation or Dragon Heist.
If adventurers have the money they simply can walk in and purchase any of the listed items at any time they please.

Just b/c they have a limited range of items does not mean they are not magic stores....no store in the world (real or fantasy) is a one stop shop where you can pick up any item in existance.

The point is that there are no less then 4 stores in 5e (that we know of) that you can walk into and buy magic items straight of the shelf with no restrictions beyond gold that are official Source Material.

The only thing that changes this is the DMs discretion in any given campaign but OFFICIALY 4 magic stores DO exist.

I understand there is no shop where you can buy "ANY" magic item but their is no general store where you can buy any item in existance either. Diffrent stores stock diffrent items.

It's obviously evident that the poster doesn't mean no magic shops exists. He's using magic shop in a specific way that you are not - essentially you are arguing semantics (which you are right on the semantics part - but there's still no need to argue over it).

Essentially - All he is saying is that there are no shops where he can acquire most magic items his heart desires. That's true.